


(My True Love Gave To Me) A Kookaburra in a Gum Tree

by kinky_kneazle



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Frottage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-21
Updated: 2012-01-21
Packaged: 2017-10-29 21:44:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/324477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinky_kneazle/pseuds/kinky_kneazle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Venomous spiders, mosquitoes, sunburn and shared showers.  This was shaping up to be Lily's worst Christmas ever, and Lysander Scamander was only making it worse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(My True Love Gave To Me) A Kookaburra in a Gum Tree

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to curiouslyfic for the superfast beta. She is far smarter than me, and thus makes the stories better. Originally written for 2011 mini-fest.

  
Christmas Eve, Port Macquarie, NSW

Lily Potter stood on top of her bed, wand pointed at the floor, a _Stupefy_ on her lips. She peered down at the corpse on the tent floor, trying to ascertain if it was really dead.

"Lovely present for the first day of Christmas," she muttered. "Venomous spiders."

"It's not the first day of Christmas," came a voice from the other bed, and Lily turned to glare at him through the flyscreen that separated their two rooms. "You can glare all you want, Lilyloo, but the fact remains that _tomorrow_ is the first day of Christmas. It being, you know, Christmas."

"My point _is_ that every damn critter in this country carries deadly poison in its fangs, and all of them manage to get into the tent!" Lily stared at Lysander Scamander as he turned another page of the book he was reading. "Stop ignoring me and do a better damn repelling charm!"

He finally lowered the book and she glared at those stupidly dreamy blue eyes. "Mum doesn't allow them. She says they'll disturb the Boomers."

Lily gritted her teeth for a moment before gathering up her clothes and stomping out of the tent towards the showers. No repelling charms. No magical showers in the tent. The worst bloody tentmate alive. Why the hell had she agreed to this?

That's right. Her dad had asked and she couldn't say no, what with the divorce so fresh. When she'd wondered if she could handle that long with her brother and the Scamander twins, he'd gone and reminded her that since her mother was dating Draco Malfoy, Scorpius would be a fixture in France. She'd decided it was better the devil you could hex without punishment from your mother.

Of course she'd thought Al, Lorcan and Lysander would be ignoring her, as they had since she'd gotten to Hogwarts and realised trailing after them wasn't as much fun as she'd always thought. Instead her dad was off with Aunt Luna and Uncle Rolf, Al and Lorcan had some weird thing going on where they looked at each other and stammered and blushed, and it left her with Lysander and the heat and a shower block that required her to wear rubber bloody flip flops in it that felt absolutely disgusting once they were wet.

They were in campgrounds in a place called Port Macquarie and she was sharing showers with fifty other women. She was starting to think Malfoy would have been better.

She dressed quickly in her swimsuit and the board shorts that were everywhere in Australia, and stepped out of the cubicle to fix her hair.

"Good morning, Lilyloo."

Lily frowned at Luna. "You know I hate that name."

"I think it suits you." Luna stepped behind Lily and started braiding her hair. Lily stood still for the ministrations – there was just no arguing with Luna, who had insisted they call her by her first name from the time they were born and often put a plate on the table for the Nargles. "We're moving on this afternoon. I'm getting a bead on the Boomers to the north of here, so we'll be in the forest."

"The forest?"

"Mmm." Luna smiled and pressed her wand-tip to the end of Lily's hair, seemingly oblivious to any need for secrecy. Lily looked around and saw everyone was ignoring them, thank Merlin.

She raised her eyebrows in question, but it looked like she would get no more information out of the older woman, who simply pressed a kiss to her hair.

"Be ready to go after lunch."

"Of course."

Lily decided to spend the day as she had the other two since she'd arrived: lying on the beach working on more freckles. She watched Al and Lorcan standing very close to each other in the deep water until she dozed off to sleep.

 

It was very hot when she finally woke up, but thankfully some shade had come across and covered her back. The shade moved and suddenly Lysander was squatting beside her.

"You're lucky we're on our way today, Lilyloo. If we were staying you'd have to keep this just to make sure secrecy was upheld."

"Keep what?"

He touched a finger to her shoulder and she yelped. "What the -?"

"Sunburn."

Lily groaned. "Can this holiday get any worse?"

"You know, Lily, you've been determined to be miserable since you got here. Any reason why?"

"I'm hot, sweaty, being eaten alive by mosquitoes and now I'm the colour of a lobster. What is there to enjoy?" She didn't want to mention how little she'd seen of her dad and how it felt like she was practically spending the holiday alone.

"Yeah, I'd like some company, too."

She glared at him and started to move, but he put a hand on her back, carefully at the spot that her top covered which wasn't sore.

"You have an opportunity to experience the beauty of a new country and a new culture. How about you let me show them to you and stop being such a grumpy little brat?"

"I don't like you," she said.

"I don't like you either, but the lover boys don't want company," he motioned to Al and Lorcan walking in from the sea, "and our folks are out on Mum's great kangaroo hunt. So it's me or the mosquitoes. And they can't heal this back." He drew a finger softly across her shoulder, drawing a hiss of pain.

"You'll heal me?"

"Yup." She heard that arrogant grin in his voice.

"And in return I cheer up and keep you company?"

"Yup."

"And you'll try not to be an arrogant berk?"

"I'll do my best. Do we have a deal?"

"Fine. "

"Good on ya, Lilyloo."

"But you can't call me that!"

"Sorry," he said right before she felt a gentle pulse of magic across her back, bringing blessed relief. "That wasn't part of the deal."

 

Christmas Day, Daintree Forest, QLD   
_On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a kookaburra in a gum tree._

On Christmas morning Lily was woken early by her tentmate. In fact the sun hadn't even risen yet.

"Why are you up so early?"

"I'm always up this early, Princess. And now you are as well."

"You didn't say anything about ridiculous times of morning."

"I am now. Come on, Lilyloo, this is the best time of the morning."

She opened her eyes enough to glare. "I will get up if you promise not to call me that ridiculous name."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. Wear good walking shoes," he added as he walked out the room.

Lily practically fell out of bed and pulled on some clothes, making sure she had the hiking boots her dad had bought her. Finally, she wandered out into the small annexe of the tent, pulling her hair back. Lysander stood in cargo pants and singlet, drinking coffee and staring out over the sea. He'd changed, she thought in that quiet moment. She always remembered him thick as thieves with Lorcan and Al, so that it seemed the three of them were one person, determined to torment her.

Now he was alone. Where Al and Lor had stayed a single being, Ly had stepped away to become a self-contained entity, encased in broad muscles and sun-bleached hair.

He turned and grinned. "Come on then, Liloo," he said and she glared at this new perversion of her name. Now he tormented her all by himself.

"Where are we going?" she asked as she followed him out into the pre-dawn light. "Shouldn't we wait for the others? It is Christmas."

"I like to watch the sunrise wherever I am," he said. "Now hurry up or we'll miss it."

She followed him out the entrance of the caravan park and she wondered again how it could possibly be so _hot_ at five in the morning. Lysander didn't seem to notice, leading her into the dense rainforest surrounding their site. The trees did nothing to cut the heat; if anything, they trapped it inside, causing the humidity to increase until Lily felt as if she were melting.

"When Mum told me she was looking for the White Boomers," he was saying as she struggled to both breathe and keep up, "I looked up where the legend came from. Mum's completely bonkers, of course. It's just some song an Aussie bloke called Rolf Harris wrote. But I found an Australian version of The Twelve Days of Christmas, and you and I are going to see every one of the animals mentioned."

She was groaning softly at the thought of so much enthusiasm so early in the morning when he spun around to face her.

"You're going to enjoy this holiday if it kills me, Liloo."

She glared at his retreating back and trudged along unhappily.

 

Somewhere along the line, she lost him. She looked up and he was gone, but the trail to follow was clear and it wasn't too much longer before she broke through the forest and was staring out at the sea again.

"You made it." He didn't even turn around. "Just in time."

The sun was staining the sea purple and orange and Lily dropped to the sand beside Lysander. They sat that way, shoulders brushing and knees resting against each other, until the sun was high in the sky.

"Wow," Lily said.

"Yeah. Merry Christmas, Lils."

She was about to return the sentiment when laughter echoed from the trees. "Is someone laughing at me?" she asked, spinning around.

Ly chuckled and pointed towards a tree. There was a flash of blue, which she saw was connected to a bird, whose mouth was open as it laughed.

"A kookaburra in a gum tree," Ly said.

"A bird's laughing at me?"

"With you, Liloo. The bird's laughing _with_ you."

 

Boxing Day, Katherine Gorge, NT   
_On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two pink galahs._

Christmas Day had ended up being quite wonderful. They'd had a barbecue for Christmas lunch and their parents had stayed for most of the day, letting her spend some time with her dad that she'd not had in a while. When the adults had gone off on their wild Boomer chase in the early evening - Luna having suspected that they were nocturnal - she and the boys had joined in a Muggle game called beach cricket with some other campers. Four seasons as Ravenclaw Beater meant she was pretty good at it.

But that was yesterday, and today they'd all seen the sunrise as they huddled around an old tennis shoe and waited to be pulled to their new destination. Al and Lor had retreated to their tent, the parents to their adventure and Ly had pulled out a book called The Lonely Planet and flicked through it eagerly.

"Brilliant," he breathed. "We can canoe through the gorge."

"We can what?"

"Come _on_ , Liloo," he said, dragging her along. "Or all the best canoes will be gone."

"Some canoes are better than others?"

"It makes sense."

They joined a tour, and Lysander took the front seat of the two-person kayak. She didn't watch his biceps flexing as he propelled them through the water; paid even less attention when he peeled off his shirt and she was left staring at his sculpted back moving with what some would call grace.

"Look at the pink birds," she said, pointing to their left.

"That's the pink galah," their guide said. "A type of parrot."

"Two pink galahs," Lysander said.

Lily watched the flock take to the sky, thinking there might be a hundred birds taking to the air. More even. "That one was a bit of overkill," she said.

"Doesn't matter. They're gorgeous."

 

December 27, Jabiru, NT   
_On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, three jabirus._

"I don't think we'll have any trouble finding our quarry today, Lils," Lysander said, well before dawn.

She smiled at this version of her name. Now it sounded like a friend was talking to her. "What makes you say that?"

"We're in a town called Jabiru, looking for jabiru. It bodes well."

They climbed onto a bus at the entrance to the caravan park and it drove them to a car park where a small crowd was gathering.

"Welcome to the Yellow River Sunrise Cruise," a man said, and they filed onto the boat.

Sure enough, it was not long before they spotted three of the storks taking flight. They sat on bench seats in an open-sided boat, and Ly's arm rested along the back of the seat. She wondered when the hell she'd become so aware of him.

At the end of the journey, she turned to him. "So, are you going to cross crocodiles off your list today as well?" They'd spotted more than one of the giant reptiles gliding through the water.

"Doesn't work like that, Lils. We shall have to seek out more crocodiles on day... was it nine?"

"You'd better hope your mum's in the right place."

"I've been hinting her towards where I want to go," Ly said with a sheepish grin.

"Lysander!" Lily let the grin creep across her face. "Anyone would think you were in Slytherin."

"We're too smart to be snakes, Liloo. Now, I thought a walk to a waterfall for the rest of the day? I have a picnic packed."

"Sure."

Although the trail was classed as only medium difficulty, it still involved some clambering up the odd pile of rocks, and Lily wondered what was wrong with her that every solicitous touch of the elbow or hand grasping hers to haul her up left her heart pounding and her mouth dry.

"I can do it!" she snapped next time he touched her, and they finished the walk in stony silence.

But the walk in the breathtaking scenery calmed her somewhat, and by the time they reached the falls she was smiling again.

He stood staring at the clear water of the lagoon, and the water cascading into it from two-hundred metres up.

"Ly?" she said, walking up behind him. He turned and she quickly pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you."

 

December 28, Dandenong Ranges, Vic   
_On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, four lyrebirds._

"We're going on a train ride," Lysander told Al and Lorcan at breakfast. "You're welcome to join us."

They declined on the basis that it was too much like going to school, so Lily found herself alone with Lysander yet again. Funnily enough, the train was a lot like the Hogwarts Express.

"But they don't let us do this on the way to school." Lysander slid onto the ledge of the window and let his feet hang outside the train.

"Are you allowed to do that?" Lily asked, a little shocked. But sure enough, everyone was climbing onto the windows, hanging over a rail that sat at about Lily's waist height. She clambered up beside him.

The train wound through a forest, going over rickety-looking bridges as it snaked through the forests.

"How do the Muggles hold it all together?" she whispered to him as they went over a particularly old-looking structure. "It looks like it's about to collapse."

Lysander went off onto an explanation about something called engineering and Lily listened with a smile, thinking about how much like Grandpa Arthur he was. Though he seemed to understand all the Muggle things, and Gramps never did.

He stopped mid-sentence to point at the ground. "I think that's a lyrebird!"

"It is," said the man sitting on Lysander's left. Lysander's arm settled back on the railing, his elbow touching hers even as he turned to talk to the birdwatcher. She listened as the two men pointed interesting birds out to each other for the rest of the journey and tried not to concentrate on where their bodies touched.

 

December 29, Canberra, ACT   
_On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, five kangaroos._

"Aren't we on the other side of the country?" Lily asked as they set up the tent in a new caravan park.

"Not quite – just half way up. Besides, who cares?" Ly replied. "We can Apparate."

"It's still highly illogical." She was threading a flexible piece of metal through some loops in a routine that had become second nature since she arrived in Australia. "And you a Ravenclaw."

"You've met my mother," Ly said as he hammered a peg into the ground. "You know it's not logic that is the trademark of the Ravenclaw. It's intelligence. In fact," he started warming up to his subject, "many of the greatest thinkers were not very logical at all. Take the Muggle Einstein, for example."

Lily continued to work as she listened to his story about a scientist called Einstein. He was always full of interesting stories, and never treated her as if she were ignorant when she didn't know about Muggle history or environmental theories or the animals they were looking for. It was a nice change from the Ravenclaw common room, where confessing ignorance would only get you mocked.

"So he invented a bomb that could destroy the world?" she asked as she stepped out of the tent and grabbed the rope to help keep the tension.

"Helped invent it, but yeah. And deeply regretted it, by all accounts."

"I guess that's why we go out and see the world, right? In case it's destroyed?"

"Yep." Ly grinned cheerfully, despite the turn the conversation had taken. "Hey, look!"

She looked where he pointed and saw that a group of grey kangaroos had come right up to the edge of the caravan park. Most of them were grazing on the grass, but one mother looked straight at them, a joey nestled in her pouch.

"Wow." She slowly sank to the ground, not wanting to disturb them, but even that movement startled the little group. They turned and hopped away, covering the ground in quick bounds.

"A mob of kangaroos," Lysander said.

"What?"

"That's the collective term. Our first mob, Liloo."

She grinned, despite the horrible nickname. She found it was hard to scowl when you've seen a mob of kangaroos before breakfast.

 

December 30, Bondi, NSW   
_On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, six sharks-a-surfing._

Bondi beach was everything she thought it would be: white sands, cute lifeguards and blissfully cool water. Unfortunately, Lysander was nothing like she'd thought he'd be.

They'd gone to the aquarium that morning to see a shark up close, not really wanting to encounter any in the wild. Then Ly had dragged her to the beach, talking excitedly about how sharks were often seen in the area and completely forgetting that they didn't _want_ to see any in the wild.

Really, she'd avoided Lorcan and Lysander since they were fourteen, so it was like she was meeting an entirely new person. A new person who confused her terribly. He insisted on rubbing sunscreen into her skin, citing her horrible experience on Christmas Eve, and his hands moved slowly and thoroughly over her arms and back. When she offered to return the favour he shrugged and nodded and was clearly completely unaffected by those few minutes that had left her feeling so breathless and aroused.

They left their towels on the sand and ran quickly towards the water, though they didn't avoid burning the soles of their feet. It was blissfully cool after the heat of the day and Lily quickly waded deeper, dropping Lysander's hand. She stopped when she was standing waist deep, the waves splashing up over her chest. She wasn't sure where Lysander was; she didn't want to turn around and see him again, looking every inch the surfer dude that populated the beach. Chiselled chest, shaggy blond hair and an easy grin – it was easy to see why he was attracting stares. Lily sent a glare at a bikini-clad woman who was looking a little too long, though she really couldn't explain why.

A wave crashed over here while she was glaring, with enough force to knock her off her feet. She fell backwards, but crashed into a warm solid body. His arms were strong around her waist and his knee came up to rest under her butt, keeping her above the water.

"Alright, Lils?" he asked.

She croaked an answer, then blushed as she cleared her throat and tried again. "I'm fine. Thanks."

He smiled and swam away and she let herself sink under the water, praying that it would cool her flaming cheeks.

 

December 31, Sturt National Park, NSW   
_On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, seven emus laying._

Lily stood in the tent frowning at her reflection in the mirror as she pulled a brush through her hair. Honestly, what was she thinking? Letting the sight of Lysander Scamander in board shorts get to her? Letting that brief moment in his arms distract her so much?

She heard a gasp behind her and turned around to find Ly staring at her with a strange expression on his face.

"I've never seen it out before," he said and she lifted a hand unconsciously to smooth it back.

"It gets in my face and annoys me," she said in a voice too soft and breathless for the conversation they were having. She turned back to the mirror, preparing to pull it back into a ponytail when she felt hands on her shoulders. She let her hands fall and her hair cascaded back over her neck, sending a shiver down her spine.

He threaded his fingers through her hair, drawing them down from her scalp and drawing a groan from her at the same time. Her heart was thudding in her chest when she met his eyes in the mirror. He kept watching her as he bent and pressed his lips to her shoulder.

"So beautiful," he murmured, almost too softly to hear.

She turned then, finding herself standing far too close.

"Ly?" she asked, feeling horribly unsure, because she may have been feeling an attraction, but he hadn't, had he?

Then his head was moving forward, far too slow, but she still didn't move away. She tilted her own so that their lips met. His were soft and firm and sure as his tongue teased along the seam of her mouth, urging it open. She stepped closer, hands moving to frame his face.

"Lily?" Al shouted from the open tent flap and Ly moved so quickly that she could almost swear he'd Apparated to the other side of the tent.

"I'll be right there," Lily called as she quickly gathered her hair into the ponytail.

She glanced at Ly, still feeling a little shocked, then gathered herself and went to join her brother. They were coming on today's emu hunt, and she wasn't sure if she should curse them or get down on her knees to thank them.

 

January 1, Uluru, NT   
_On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, eight dingos dancing._

"I was sure we'd see them here," Luna was saying, sounding rather close to tears. They were camped in the shadow of Ayer's Rock – Uluru, she corrected herself – and their entire party had spent the day walking around the base of the large monolith. She and Ly had spotted their dingoes, trotting off into the distance. Unfortunately, Luna hadn't seen her Boomers.

Lily watched from the other side of the fire as her dad put his arm around Luna and gave her a squeeze. She curled into his side and nuzzled under his chin.

Things had been enormously awkward with Ly all day, and she'd stayed close to her dad or Al, not knowing what to think of the kiss that had not been repeated. But she had to comment on this, because to her, admittedly somewhat inexperienced eyes, they were acting like lovers.

"Ly?" she whispered. "Are my dad and your mum acting awfully close?"

"Yes," he replied.

"Do you think _your_ dad minds?"

Lysander motioned with his head and Lily turned around to see Rolf squatting behind the other two adults, his hands resting on their necks as he murmured something.

"Oh," Lily said, her mind suddenly seeing what should have been obvious from the start.

Lysander chuckled, the sound low against her ear. "I think they've been trying to be discreet."

"I guess they were doing a pretty good job."

"Until now."

Lily hummed her agreement as she waved good night to her dad and the Scamanders as they moved towards their tent.

"Lily, I –" He stopped talking and she turned to look at him. The firelight flickered across his face, hiding his expression and she wasn't sure at all what he was going to say. Then his hand moved towards her face. She gasped as his fingers brushed her cheek, then the lock of hair that had been annoying her for the last ten minutes was tucked carefully behind her ear. Her tongue flicked out to moisten suddenly dry lips and a flare of the fire showed his eyes darken as they followed the movement. His fingers cupped her jaw and he leaned forward, his intent obvious.

"Lysander!" His jaw clenched at the sound of his name, and Lily saw him take a deep breath before turning to reply to Al.

"Yes?"

"We need your help. Come over here."

Lysander stood and Lily got to her feet as well.

"This wouldn't interest you, Lilyloo," Al said, and that snide tone was in his voice, so familiar that it threw her back to their childhood and the 'We Hate Lily' club the three of them had when they were ten and she suddenly found she couldn't stand to be around them. She turned abruptly and walked into the tent without another word.

"What'd you do that for?" Lysander asked as soon as she was through the flap, and she paused to listen.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"And you couldn't do that in front of Lils? Or at least without being a dick towards her?"

"You're the one being a dick, Ly. Playing with her emotions the way you are."

"What makes you think –"

"Oh, please. She's still in school and you're a world-traveller with a girl in every port. Don't amuse yourself with her just because you're still jealous of what Lor and I have."

Lily felt her heart clench at Ly's silence. Then, almost too soft to hear, "Lily is more than that, and if you weren't so caught up in each other, you'd see it."

She walked into the small bedroom area, not wanting to be caught eavesdropping. _More._ She wasn't sure exactly what he meant, but she still fell asleep with a smile on her face.

 

January 2, Darwin, NT   
_On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, nine crocs-a-snoozing._

Darwin was a return to the stifling humidity of the Daintree Rainforest, and Lily kept her hair in a tight braid just to keep it off the back of her neck. While the parents Apparated further out to Melville Island, Al and Lor had joined their expedition to Adelaide River.

"Why are we here?" Lor asked when the Portkey dumped them behind a shed.

"To see the crocodiles," Lysander replied.

"We couldn't do that back in Darwin?"

"You didn't need to come!" Lily finally snapped.

"But we wanted to spend time with you, Lilyloo," Al said.

As Lily turned to walk to the boat she heard Lysander snort behind her.

Thankfully, once they were on the boat, Al and Lorcan wanted to stay inside on the lower deck, and Lily quickly escaped upstairs. She stood alone in the crowd, watching the tour operator hang a large fishing rod type thing over the side of the boat, a large piece of meat attached.

There was a collective gasp as a large crocodile leapt six feet into the air to snatch the meat from the air. Lily pushed through to the railing to get a better look just as the next crocodile did its acrobatic display. A body pressed in from behind her and she tensed before she realised she recognised Ly's smell. His hands grasped the railing, trapping her within his arms.

"Amazing," he said, as he leant forward even further, resting elbows on the railing and pressing himself against her back. She felt a tell-tale hardness against her butt and rocked her hips, just to be sure it was what she thought it was. His quick intake of breath told her it was.

"All that power," she murmured as another set of jaws snapped in front of them.

He wrapped an arm around her waist, his thumb brushing the underside of her breast and she wondered what the hell they were doing. She let her arse move against him and told herself it was the rocking of the boat, even as his soft touch was sending jolts of pleasure to her groin.

"Ly?" she asked a little shakily, and he groaned against her ear.

"You're driving me insane," he murmured, before he pulled her away from the railing and into the bathroom. With a crack they appeared in the tent and Lysander was pushing her against the magically stable wall that separated their bedrooms from the annexe. His lips claimed hers and she threaded her fingers into his hair to hold him tight. One hand gripped her thigh and pulled it up to his hip, and his thigh pressed against her so hard that she was sure he could feel how wet she was. His other hand moved to cup her arse and urge her hips to rock against him.

She broke the kiss and let her head fall against the canvas. "Fuck," she gasped as his lips moved down her neck to the swell of her breast above the tank top she wore. She could feel his erection through the thin shorts as he moved against her hips.

"Merlin, Lils, you feel so good." He grabbed her other thigh and she instinctively lifted it, hooking her feet at the small of his back. The hard ridge of his cock was pressed against her clit and she ground against it, desperate to feel that pressure wind tighter.

She'd never come like this before, with clothes still on and just a hardness rubbing against her, so she was surprised by the guttural groan that escaped her lips as pleasure took over. She opened her eyes and found Ly watching, fascinated, as the final spasms shook her body, then he thrust against her a final time and she could feel his cock pulsing against her, the dampness spreading across his shorts.

He rested his forehead against hers as they both struggled for breath.

 

January 3, Adelaide, SA   
_On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, ten wombats washing._

After a trip to the zoo to see the wombats, Lysander took Lily to lunch at a place called the Sushi Train. They sat squashed next to each other on stools and the food travelled past them on little plates.

"Is that raw fish?" she asked as he took a plate of, well... raw fish, off the little track thing that made it go around.

"It's sashimi," he said as he poured soy sauce into a small dish. He picked up a piece with chopsticks, which she recognised from her dad's love of sweet and sour pork, and dipped it into the sauce then popped it into his mouth. He repeated the process and held the slice of salmon out to her. "Try it."

Lily discovered she loved sushi, but she loved the way Lysander picked out plates for her to try with such careful consideration even more.

"Aren't we supposed to do the lunch date before the-" She made a vague gesture with her hand.

"Before the kissing and frotting and coming in the pants?"

Her face heated and she looked around furtively. Considering how tightly people were crammed in here, someone must have heard, but they were largely business people intent on eating quickly and getting back to the office. Lysander chuckled as he pulled another plate off the train.

"Tamago," he said. "Sweet omelette." She opened her mouth obediently and took a bite of the treat. "I don't mind if you don't, Liloo," he said when her mouth was full. "Because despite what your brother has inferred, I want this to be more than just a casual fling."

She managed to swallow the tamago, despite the fact it wasn't chewed properly and her throat felt quite thick. She opened her mouth to speak and found the second half of the tamago waiting for her. She took it reluctantly, letting him keep her quiet as he wanted to.

"Think about it, alright?"

She nodded and he turned their conversation to other things.

 

January 4, Adelaide, SA   
_On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, eleven lizards leaping._

Sometime after midnight, Lily stood and walked to the doorway that separated the two rooms. She thought Lysander was asleep but he turned as she watched, and looked at her steadily.

"I thought about it," she said, stepping into the room.

"And?"

She undid the sash of her robe and let it fall to the ground, leaving her standing naked before him. "I don't want casual either."

He held back the single sheet he was sleeping under and she climbed into bed beside him. She pressed close against his naked skin. The night was just as hot as the day had been, and her body felt scorched where it touched his. She didn't care at all; she just cared about getting her hands on him, feeling his lips on hers.

He pulled her on top of him and she felt his cock nestle between her legs.

"I really hadn't expected you naked in my bed, no matter what decision you made."

She propped herself up and looked down into his eyes. "Am I going too fast for you?"

He held her close and thrust up against her wet heat. "Not at all."

"Goo-" A movement behind his head caught her eye and she squealed and fell to his side, dragging him with her.

"Lily?" He scrambled away from her and turned around, groping for his wand. Then he burst out laughing. "You're worried about that?"

She peered closer and saw that it was a lizard crawling along the wall of the tent.

"I couldn't see what it was!"

"It's our lizard leaping."

Her eyes narrowed. "Do they really leap?"

"No."

"Good," she said, laying back down.

"I don't think so."

"Lysander!" She laughed as she pulled him down beside her and wondered why it had taken so long for her to actually see him.

 

January 5, Adelaide, SA   
_On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, twelve possums playing._

"I can't believe I have to go back in the morning," Lily said as they sat outside looking up at a sky that was totally different to the one they learned about in school. "Where do you go next?"

He pulled her a little closer, tucking her under his shoulder. "I told Dad I'd go stay at their place in England for a bit, make sure the house is alright. Mum wants to keep travelling."

"You don't want to? Keep travelling, I mean."

"Of course I do. This gives me a nice long chunk of time to plan my next trip." His fingers nudged her jaw and she looked up at him. "Since I'm hoping it will be for two next time."

She felt the grin spread slowly across her face and gave him an enthusiastic kiss.

"So you like the idea of exploring some exotic locale with me?"

"Very much so." She settled more securely in his arms, ignoring the glares Al and Lor were sending from the other side of the fire. "I'm just sorry we'll miss the possums later today. I know we saw them at the zoo, but it's not the same."

"There's one there." He pointed at a tree to their left and she just shook her head, not seeing a thing. " _Lumos_ ," he whispered, and the light reflected off two large pairs of eyes peering down from a tree. "Can you go back to Hogwarts happy now?"

"Very happy."

"Good." He tugged her to her feet. "Time for bed."

She followed him into the spider and mosquito-infested tent and pushed thoughts of possums from her mind. It was time to start planning her next adventure.


End file.
